Daddy answered the questions with great details, giving the three of us a view of his life as a young boy, as a young man during World War II, as a husband and father, and as a man leaving a legacy behind him.

Due to health concerns, Daddy and Momma moved from Virginia Beach, Virginia, to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1999. When Daddy passed away in 2005, Momma moved into independent living, and many of their belongings went into storage for several years. Oftentimes, Donna would ask if I knew of the book or where it was. I had no clue! We were all concerned that the book had been lost for good.

Fast forward to mid-October of this year as I was unpacking boxes in my new house. I started going through boxes marked “photos”, and the book was in one of those boxes. Rather than tell my siblings that I found the book, I contacted my FOREVER Ambassador to get expertise about how to make copies for my brother and me. She was invaluable and shared so much of her time with me, especially using Zoom, so she could see what I was doing. From deciding the color of the page, to creating exact margins to replicate the pages in the book, to helping me get the book set with right and left pages were invaluable. Since we had 97 pages of material, my Ambassador suggested that I add pictures to complete the book. For many of you who have worked with the process, it is second nature to you. That was not my story - this was the first project I had worked on in many years. The books were ordered, and I could not wait for them to arrive.

Delivery of my books was so fast and efficient, and I began to set my plan into place of how to give my siblings their books and be able to see them at the same time as we live in Mississippi, Alabama, and Virginia. I enlisted my sister-in- law and my niece to receive the books and set up the Zoom meeting…. our first one during COVID.

I could hardly contain my excitement as we all started talking and checking on each other as we had missed our sibling reunion in October. Finally, an opening came, and I called on my assistants to bring the books out. My sister was faster getting hers open (the original book) and neither of us could contain our tears of joy. Tim, my brother, was a little slower getting his opened because his book was still in the packing box. The pure joy on all our faces was the best gift of all. Once they realized what they had in their hands, we could not stop the tears, laughter, and excitement that the original book of Daddy’s had been found. They kept going through the pages…yes, all 100 of them, in Daddy’s handwriting knowing the treasures that were in those pages. The stories jumped from the pages and came to life.

My brother described this gift as a pearl of great treasure that had been lost and then found. I agree! We are all three so thankful that we now have a written record that we will hold close to our hearts.